I'm coming with you
by sharkinterviewee
Summary: S 3 finale spoilers: After Jake gets the call from Figgis and it's determined that Jake and Holt need to go into witness protection, ake's certain it would be unfair to ask Amy to come with him and just assumes that she'll work the case in Brooklyn while he's in undisclosed town of undisclosed state. But when they get some time alone to talk, Jake finds out he assumed wrong.


Jake didn't pay much attention to all the information that was being spouted at him for the past couple hours. All he really cared to know was that Jake and Holt (plus Kevin) were going to an undisclosed town in an undisclosed state for witness protection until this was all blown over.

He also knew that he wouldn't be able to contact anyone. He paid attention enough that they'd be neighbors so at least he wouldn't be cut off from everyone he knew and they'd be able to drop the alternate identities behind closed doors.

Then there was Amy. Amy his girlfriend, who he was gonna move in with before all the death threats came in. Kevin was Holt's husband and a college professor, so he was definitely in danger when a hit was put on Holt's head. But Amy was Jake's girlfriend, a detective who could take care of herself. Her life wasn't in any more danger than Charles and Rosa's lives were because considering the circumstances she was only as liable as the rest of the nine nine, despite Jake and Amy's personal relationship. The bounty wasn't on the whole nine nine. Specifically Jake and Holt, not the rest of the team.

It hadn't even been a whole 24 hours since the call came in, and they were more or less sequestered to the precinct while they verified the threat and determined that witness protection was the way to go. They weren't even allowed to go home to get a to go bag because it was too dangerous. They'd probably be in the precinct for a couple more hours at least before everything was set up with US marshals and stuff, and the precinct was the safest place for them to be all things considered.

He finally got a moment alone with Amy when he pulled her into the file room so they could have as much privacy as possible when they weren't able to leave the building. He just needed a quiet place to talk.

"Jake, hey," she smiled softly before pulling him into a hug that was exactly what he needed at the moment. Some time to not think for a moment, hold her, and just breathe.

"You doing okay?" She asked before sitting down on the floor against the wall. When Jake followed suit Amy grabbed his hand and laid her head on his shoulder.

"Not at all," he told her honestly, and she chuckled in response. "How am I supposed to do this? How am I supposed to be okay with this when I don't even know how long it'll be? How am I supposed to be okay with... with missing you that long? How am I supposed to get through that when I can't contact anyone, much less you."

"I'm going with you, duh," Amy answered like it was unspoken and he should have assumed that she was automatically going to come, when he was having some serious existential dread cause he assumed that he couldn't ask that of her. Shouldn't make her make that choice.

"You are?"

"Of course. It wasn't a hard decision."

Amy was just rubbing her thumb over the back of his hand when Jake was silent. He knew he was supposed to say something, but he didn't know what to say. Didn't know what words to even speak. Forgot how to speak.

More or less sat there, completely dumbfounded. Of course Amy saying that she wanted to come with him was the only good news in a whole day of bad news. It was the best thing he could hear that he wasn't expecting to hear. But Jake was still frozen, gripping Amy's hand.

"Do you not want me to come?" She asked cautiously and lifted her head off his shoulder.

"Shut up! Shut up!" Jake exclaimed so she would stop saying crazy stuff and getting further and further off course when he didn't know what to say. Maybe if he was better at reacting to serious stuff than he could have said something more appropriate than telling his girlfriend to shut up when he was flabbergasted, but he sucked at serious stuff. Luckily Amy knew that, so at his outburst she smiled at the look on his face and lost the look on hers- insecurity?

"Shut up. Stop talking like a stupid person. Of course I want you to come. You're so stupid to think I'd ever want to go any amount of time without seeing your stupid face. I love your stupid face. Why would I not want your stupid face to come with my stupid face? What's wrong with you? Total stupid talk. Of course I want you and your stupid face to come with me."

"I love your stupid face too," she grinned and stroked his cheek. He was floored by her, not for the first and certainly not the last time. She made him speechless all too often, but that wasn't a bad thing. When he lost the words and just had to stop and stare at just how amazing she was. No qualms about this sudden decision, just smiling as she trailed her fingers at his temple. Yeah, he definitely couldn't go that long without seeing her not at all stupid smile.

"What about everything else? Like work and stuff? And family? I got you new fish, and I am so sorry about the old ones. Who's gonna feed your new fish? Me and Holt are the only ones with hits on our heads," he reminded her like she somehow could have forgotten. Of course he didn't want to go anywhere without her. Of course he wanted Amy to come. But Jake was barely handling all the suddenness, and Santiago couldn't do sudden. She took weeks to think things through before making a decision on anything bigger than what she was gonna order from the snack machine that day. Jake was usually pretty good with making snap decisions. Not Amy. Jake didn't even have a choice in this situation. Amy did.

"Yeah, that's why you both need someone who doesn't have a bounty on their head to come with you," she said with a smile like it was the most obvious thing in the world and she didn't get why _he_ didn't get it. "I even made a list of reasons the biggest reasons I'm coming so you wouldn't feel guilty because you're a good person and a good boyfriend and I was pretty sure this would be one of the useless things you feel guilty over for no reason. It's not a sacrifice that I'm doing just for you, so you're not allowed to feel guilty about it. You remember I just got out of prison last week, right? Pretending to be a murderer and sleeping on a prison cot with only one extra pillow cause I was pregnant and missing you like hell. Pretending to be a different person living a normal life in a normal house in a normal bed with my actual boyfriend is like a vacation."

Amy then proceeded to pull out piece of paper from her pocket and carefully unfold it in her hands to read from. "One: I know you both won't just twiddle your thumbs while everyone works their end in Brooklyn, so you and the captain need a babysitter to make sure you don't do something extra stupid. Two: we were already going to move in together even though we didn't get the chance to start that cause of the death threats and all. But I was so ready to do that and spent some serious time thinking about how to bring that up in a no pressure situation cause you're you with relationships and next steps. You know me. Do you honestly think that a few measly death threats on my boyfriend's life are gonna stop me from doing something I already decided to do?"

Jake laughed and shook his head at that. "You're right. That doesn't sound like you at all. Even Jimmy Figgis is no match for Amy Santiago's stubborn nature," he conceded.

"I'm glad you see my point."

Instead of saying anything to that, Jake just grabbed her hand, laid his head on her shoulder, and closed his eyes. He could fall asleep right there if he let himself. After everything that happened that day, exhausted was an understatement. All he wanted was to just go home and fall asleep with the familiar scent of Amy next to him and cuddle the shit out of each other, wake up in the morning with absolutely nothing wrong, and start moving in together later that day. Even though Amy would probably point out that they would have to figure out leases and a whole bunch of other things that he hadn't even considered that would hold up a moving situation for at least a couple days (probably more, he honestly had no idea what steps were necessary other than shoving things in a box and opening up that box in a different place).

Finding out that he'd still wake up next to her regardless of what little corner of the country he was relocated to was the best thing he could have heard. He didn't care where he woke up as long as it was next to Amy.

Jake sighed when she kissed the top of his head and ran her fingers through his hair. Just sitting together on the cold concrete floor of the file room was the only thing keeping him grounded.

"Thank you. For coming. I didn't think I could ask that of you. So thank you for not making me ask." His voice was quiet cause he knew if he spoke any louder it was gonna break. Maybe it was just how tired he was, or it was just the release of all the tension, paired with serious and meaningful talk with the person who meant more to him than anything, with his voice already getting hoarse he knew he was almost to the point of eyes leaking (not crying, not at all crying. Eyes leaking salty water, not crying). Not cause of sadness or anything, because he wasn't. What Amy just said made him so happy. But more than anything he just felt relieved. A weight off his shoulders. He was so tired, and just trying to keep his head straight while worrying about what this was gonna mean for him and Amy. When Amy told him he didn't need to be worried about it anymore, he wasn't able to feel anything but relief.

"Of course you don't have to ask. If I was the one in danger, I know right where you'd be. Next to me. I know you'd be next to me before I could even get the words out of my mouth to ask. I wouldn't have to ask for you to be there for me, cause you'd already be there. You're always there for me, Jake. I love you. Of course you don't have to ask me to be there for you. I'm gonna be there for you whether you want me to or not. You can't get rid of me that easy," Amy gave him a barely there punch on his shoulder to drive the point home. He was usually the one who made other people laugh when they were upset. Not the other way around. But Amy knew him far too well to ever _not_ know what to do to make him feel better. Whether he needed a serious moment with her where they actually said important word stuff, or if he just needed some teasing and jokes to take his mind off of something. She always knew how to make him laugh.

Amy didn't consider herself funny. Her sense of humor leaned toward the nerdy side and she was great at sarcastic quips, while Jake usually went for the not-at-all subtle type of humor when he was trying to make people laugh. But it worked out great with them. Jake could make Amy laugh. No matter how he was feeling, Amy could make him laugh without even trying.

Sometimes it was more of chuckling, or those huffy breaths out your nose than full out laughter, but it was really all the same. She could always make him smile.

"Third: you almost burned down your apartment four times in a single month. You're gonna die without me from pure negligence, not from any bounty."

There was no arguing with her on that. He had a horrible track record with accidental fires. Even though he didn't want to admit it, she was probably right about him and Holt needing babysitting. There was no way they'd be able to just sit there and not do anything. Seeing as how last time he was kicked of a case he tricked Boyle into coming to Atlantic City with him and kept getting horribly injured this didn't bode well for his self control. Even though witness protection wasn't quite the same as getting kicked off a case. Holt wasn't good at letting stuff go either, and they'd probably enable each other into investigating by the end of the week. Amy would be the only voice of reason to stop them from trying to keep tabs on the case any way they could.

"Plus you're gonna be neighbors with the captain," she pointed out with a voice way too cheery when they were only gonna be neighbors because a super bad dude wanted to kill both of them. "No way am I not living with you when you're gonna be living next door to Captain Holt. I mean, I know they won't tell you the exact details until you're there so there's a possibility we'll just be in the same town or neighborhood as Holt and Kevin, but I'm pretty sure the US marshals have some safe houses next door for cases like this. It's a tactical advantage, so if they have any sense we'll be next door or on the same street so it'll be easier to tell if we've been compromised when both of our houses are being serveilled if we're next door to each other. But until we find out for sure, I'm just going with the most likely scenario that we'll live next door to each other. I love you and I'd still go with you even if you were the only one being threatened and Holt was still in Brooklyn, but I'm looking on the bright side."

"Sunny Santiago," Jake chuckled. "If we're lucky maybe they'll send us somewhere sunny and warm. Is the Sunshine State California or Florida?"

"Florida. I'm pretty sure California's nickname is the Golden State, but I'm positive that Florida is the Sunshine State. I've heard they have good oranges down there."

* * *

 **AN: I've seen some stuff of reunion predictions come season four on tumblr, but my prediction is that Kevin and Amy are gonna be relocated with Holt and Jake. All four of them.**

 **Here are my main reasons why I think all 4 will be going even though only Holt and Kevin are shown in the end scene:**  
 **1\. Kevin is Holt's husband, and he's definitely going if the show's gonna be accurate with US laws. Spouses and children of a witness are relocated with the threatened family member. If someone's in enough danger that they need to go into witness protection their immediate family is considered as being in danger too. Being a TV show obviously Jake and Holt aren't going to be in witness protection for years, but in real life it's a real possibility that people will have to be in witness protection for a lot longer than a couple of months, so with an indefinite time frame they don't split up families just because only one member witnessed a crime/is needed to testify in a trial.**  
 **2\. I thought that having Amy suggest moving in together and Jake responding with "Absolutely, immediately, let's do that." BEFORE he received the call from Figgis was a very smart and intentional move on the show's writers, because that made it so they were already going to move in together as a relationship next step thing before anything was at risk. I thought the writers did that so it wouldn't be like they were forced to move in together when they weren't ready if they only decided to move in together after Jake's life was threatened and they were only starting to live together because of the situation. So it wouldn't be just a woman dropping everything and deciding to move in with her boyfriend just so she could follow him (into witness protection).**

 **Honestly, it's no secret that B99 is one of the best shows ever about sexist stereotypes (like the Bechdel test that way too many works of fiction fail far too easily). How they treat every character like a person rather than condensing them to stereotypes (regarding gender, sexual orientation, and race) without pretending that the world is perfect and that prejudice doesn't exist anymore.**

 **Plus they do it while making you laugh without ending the episode like an 80's sitcom with a thinly veiled lesson that people will complain about being "preachy".**

 **I think that's the great thing about Brooklyn Nine Nine. Every character is an individual, and they just show life accurately. They're not trying to shoehorn a lesson in or to teach viewers about how prejudice is wrong. They're just showing the world how it is, accurately. There aren't any lessons neatly wrapped in everyday life, so B99 doesn't wrap up lessons for viewers. They just show life. If you happen to learn something in the process, that's all on you.**


End file.
